An ISP (Internet Service Provider) provides your internet connection, whether at home, at work, or via mobile data.
Your ISP can see every domain you visit (even with HTTPS), the timing and volume of your traffic, which devices are on your network, and your real IP address at all times.
In many countries, ISPs are legally required to retain this data for months or years and provide it to authorities on request, often without notifying you.
A VPN hides your browsing from your ISP by routing traffic through an encrypted tunnel. Your ISP sees that you are connected to a VPN — not what you are doing.
What it means in practice
Your ISP sees every domain you visit, your connection timestamps, and the volume of traffic — even if the content is encrypted. In many countries, ISPs are legally required to retain this metadata for months or years and to provide it to authorities on request. A VPN shifts this visibility from your ISP to the VPN provider. HTTPS encrypts content in transit but does not hide which sites you are connecting to.
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Your phone carrier sells your location data. — A VPN won’t save you if this already happened. — Incognito mode doesn’t hide what you think it does.